For the guys that have upgraded thier 002r front and back end

[pingu]

Hi guys
Im interested to see what guys have bought to upgrade their 002 racks

Im thinking of getting
a rosetta 200
either and or
The Brick
RNP

I also need a headphone amplifier i was thinking of getting one of the behringer ones.

Do i also need something like a SPL MTC?

Cheers



So are all these things required guys?

[flail19]

Originally Posted by pingu

I also need a headphone amplifier i was thinking of getting one of the behringer ones.

Pleeeease don't. Get a presonus if it's on the cheap. I take all the criticisms of different equipment on here with a grain of salt. Some gear that gets bashed is very usable for a small home/project studio. But I know one thing is for sure...I have never ever ever used a piece of behr***** gear that didn't absolutely suck.

Now as far as the upgrade is concerned. Some people say that the converters and the clock on the 002R are not up to par. Some people say that the pre's are not up to par. I would suggest that you try to make some recordings with the stand alone 002R and then add the Rosetta 200. See what the difference is. Then add a preamp. I use the RNP into a RME ADI-2 via S/PDIF to my 002R. IMHO the RNP is a step up from the 002R's pre's but I think you need to find out for yourself whether or not it's worth the extra dough. I hope this helps. I have no experience with the black lion audio mods but some say that is the way to go also.

[pingu]

Hi dude.

Thanks.

Ive spent heaps of time on the standard 002 and its time to upgrade.

Ive tried to narrow it down to items that are reputed to be worthy through what i have read here as im not really in a position to try.

[T.RayBullard]

Black Lion does a mod of the Digi002 that is supposed to be great.

check your PM.

[Jonboy79]

Originally Posted by flail19

Pleeeease don't. Get a presonus if it's on the cheap. I take all the criticisms of different equipment on here with a grain of salt. Some gear that gets bashed is very usable for a small home/project studio. But I know one thing is for sure...I have never ever ever used a piece of behr***** gear that didn't absolutely suck.

It's actually one of it's decent units. I use one everyday and it's never failed on me. The sound may not be the greatest but it's the musicians that wear the phones not me and with 16 outputs at 130 bucks you probably can't beat it. I've run 9 pairs of phones off one unit with no problems. So to the original poster of this thread, take this guys advice "with a grain of salt". You can use the 002r's jack for your phones and run the other guys thru the behri and you're good to go.

[Matt Hepworth]

I'd try to get a Rane HC6 headphone amp used. I got one for around $75, but they usually go more in the $150 range. MUCH better than anything else in the price range.

[danasti]

Originally Posted by pingu

Hi guys
Im interested to see what guys have bought to upgrade their 002 racks

I also need a headphone amplifier i was thinking of getting one of the behringer ones.

Do i also need something like a SPL MTC?


So are all these things required guys?

None of it's required. Let me share a story:

Where I used to work we started with 16bit protools. We were one of the first to get a digidesign 24bit interface. We also had one analog (tape) studio. Then we had 3 smaller rooms with DIGI 001's under different configurations.

Anyway, we had some great mics, great rooms, great people and a creative, relaxed environment. Now we never used the preamps on the 001 but if you got a good signal the 001 would do a decent job getting it into the computer and putting it out to the power amps. There has actually be tons of great music and sound recorded on an 001.

I think an 002 conversion is a step up from the 001 and if you have a good sound signal it will sound good. Here's some of the things I think are important:

Tube Mics: (budget - mid - pro/midpro)
Rode K2 - Audio Technica 4060 - Neumann M147

Mics LDC solid state
cad m1719 - Gefell M930 - B&K 4053

Mics Small diaphragm
Audio-Technica 4049 - gefell mv200 w/m27 - Earthworks QTC50(mp)

Get a good mic pre.
Buzz audio - Aurora GTO2 - great river

Get good speakers (Adam Genelec Dynaudio) with a good power amp(s) and cabling. The DA on the 002 is actually one of it's better areas.

Look for something like a tascam us-2400 as faders for your rack. It really helps to have all your tracks on faders. There's other controllers but I have always liked this one the mackie hui and the little bitty jl cooper the best.

Oh, get good monitors first - they should be the first thing of quality you buy.

My opinion is that you should be able get a good sound before you worry about the conversion of it.

[maskedman72]

i have a bheringer hp pro headphone amp and it works great and sounds fine.
it has a lot of good features also like hi and low eq for each set of cans. cost me $65 used at guitar center.

as far as my 002r set up, my 002 is just a dongle. i bypass it and use outborad converters, clocks and pres.

if i need more pres i have a digimax i can go to.

i noticed a big improvement once i got a good clock for my system.

sounds good to me and people keep coming back to record so it must bo ok.

[Raggedy]

Originally Posted by danasti

My opinion is that you should be able get a good sound before you worry about the conversion of it.

I wasn't sure about this line of thinking until I got my Mytek DA96, which pretty much exposed my low-end front end for what it really was. Suddenly, the cheaper Presonus, cheaper dbx, etc. sounded, well... cheap.

I'd recommend putting the money you were going to spend on a converter toward a true high-end tracking chain. It'll make the next upgrade much simpler, too, since you'll already have some gear that you won't need to upgrade.

[commaKaze]

Hey Pingu,

Definitely Apogee mini me. In fact, my baby steps were exactly that: first an Apogee mini me, which was leagues above the 002, and shortly after I got a GT "The Brick," and then I started having some fun.

"The Brick" really is an amazing little piece of equipment(bang for the buck factor is kookoo ka choob) that's kind of like a swiss army knife...it's a great, true tube pre, a killer DI, a splitter, a line driver, and there's a list of "Brick Tricks" you can find anywhere that are very useful for live or recording. If it had a phase inverter(and I had the money), I'd get 3 more and be silly.

The mini me is really amazing in my experience. The conversion is A+, those pres are crystal clear, beautiful, sparkly and lively, not at all sterile...I feel like I'm chillin with some photoshopped hot 31yr old dope chic in a Parliament cigarette magazine ad when using those...they may just actually be on my list of favorite pres. And the soft limit/compression is just plain sick. Price drop just a few months ago to, to about $895. A pure steal. I think people are going to start dropping them too for the ensemble, so maybe you can score one used cheaper.

But even with all that...You'd be plain silly not to Black Lion Audio mod the 002. You're basically paying 1/8th of what you should be for something that sounds that good. "Deluxe Mod" of course. I may have a reputation for being "that guy" who was the 1st one to have one, so I've already said and posted enough about it. It's not even a 002 anymore. It's a BLA-DAR or something like that. I honestly don't know what's better, my Mytek 8x96, or my BLA 002. The Mytek seems to have ever so subtly better imaging, but I think the BLA 002 beats it out as far as bass response. From some of my critical tests...I think I actually even like the mini me a lot better than the Myteks.

Cliche time kids: I know the mini me doesn't carry the reputation of a Lavry or a Prism, but, man, if you really dig into that thing and really get to know how to use it and own it, there's no reason why you can't make the most incredible sounding records with just that. I say cliche 'cos there's always one post in every thread where someone has some sort of magical epiphany and tries to blow everyones mind by saying, "you know, man, it's not about the gear, it's about the source, the engineer, the passion, yada yada yada." Well, I shan't go that far, because realistically equipment is indeed well more than half the equation, the other less-than-half is the other stinky stuff. In your situation, I'd say go that route. It'd take a while before you'd outgrow it, and you may never want to get rid of it.

And no I'm not paid by anybody to say anything...damn, I'm not even paying myself...EDITH!!!!!!!!

Really though, you've got some good ideas already...

[nadsatrebel]

Originally Posted by pingu

Hi guys
Im interested to see what guys have bought to upgrade their 002 racks

Im thinking of getting
a rosetta 200
either and or
The Brick
RNP

I also need a headphone amplifier i was thinking of getting one of the behringer ones.

Do i also need something like a SPL MTC?

Cheers



So are all these things required guys?

I had that berry headphone amp. It worked great TWICE. Don't waste yer time, get this: http://www.zzounds.com/item--RLLHA43 it's cheaper and better.

[MAProTulz]

I've been quite pleased at the sonic improvements of using an Audient ASP008 lightpiped to the 002R as a main front end. I'm still left with the useable pres in the 002R, as well as the rest of the analog ins, and SPDIF too, in case I need 18 tracks at once.

The Audient sounds great - not that the 002R pres sound bad, but the Audients sound better.

[pingu]

Originally Posted by commaKaze

Hey Pingu,

Definitely Apogee mini me. In fact, my baby steps were exactly that: first an Apogee mini me, which was leagues above the 002, and shortly after I got a GT "The Brick," and then I started having some fun.

"The Brick" really is an amazing little piece of equipment(bang for the buck factor is kookoo ka choob) that's kind of like a swiss army knife...it's a great, true tube pre, a killer DI, a splitter, a line driver, and there's a list of "Brick Tricks" you can find anywhere that are very useful for live or recording. If it had a phase inverter(and I had the money), I'd get 3 more and be silly.

The mini me is really amazing in my experience. The conversion is A+, those pres are crystal clear, beautiful, sparkly and lively, not at all sterile...I feel like I'm chillin with some photoshopped hot 31yr old dope chic in a Parliament cigarette magazine add when using those...they may just actually be on my list of favorite pres. And the soft limit/compression is just plain sick. Price drop just a few months ago to, to about $895. A pure steal. I think people are going to start dropping them too for the ensemble, so maybe you can score one used cheaper.

But even with all that...You'd be plain silly not to Black Lion Audio mod the 002. You're basically paying 1/8th of what you should be for something that sounds that good. "Deluxe Mod" of course. I may have a reputation for being "that guy" who was the 1st one to have one, so I've already said and posted enough about it. It's not even a 002 anymore. It's a BLA-DAR or something like that. I honestly don't know what's better, my Mytek 8x96, or my BLA 002. The Mytek seems to have ever so subtly better imaging, but I think the BLA 002 beats it out as far as bass response. From some of my critical tests...I think I actually even like the mini me a lot better than the Myteks.

Cliche time kids: I know the mini me doesn't carry the reputation of a Lavry or a Prism, but, man, if you really dig into that thing and really get to know how to use it and own it, there's no reason why you can't make the most incredible sounding records with just that. I say cliche 'cos there's always one post in every thread where someone has some sort of magical epiphany and tries to blow everyones mind by saying, "you know, man, it's not about the gear, it's about the source, the engineer, the passion, yada yada yada." Well, I shan't go that far, because realistically equipment is indeed well more than half the equation, the other less-than-half is the other stinky stuff. In your situation, I'd say go that route. It'd take a while before you'd outgrow it, and you may never want to get rid of it.

And no I'm not paid by anybody to say anything...damn, I'm not even paying myself...EDITH!!!!!!!!

Really though, you've got some good ideas already...

Cool man.









Thanks guys.

[GregoryC]

Originally Posted by Raggedy

I wasn't sure about this line of thinking until I got my Mytek DA96, which pretty much exposed my low-end front end for what it really was. Suddenly, the cheaper Presonus, cheaper dbx, etc. sounded, well... cheap.

I'd recommend putting the money you were going to spend on a converter toward a true high-end tracking chain. It'll make the next upgrade much simpler, too, since you'll already have some gear that you won't need to upgrade.

Exactly! Get a pre. I recently finished overdubs on a 002R with a Bent Avril mic pre.
The bed traks were done at Ardent Studios as well as the mixing after using the 002R/Brent Avril set up. Oh yeah, we used a Manley VoxBox as well.
I own the Central Station; it's great. Buy something on which you can expand. I wouldn't get a BeH-Ringer though...

[Gregg Sartiano]

My 2c:

Get an old Rosetta AD ($600-800???) and blow the rest of the $$$ on a channel strip -- or a pre -- fewer features, more sound. I mean, how much are the Rosetta 200's, anyway? Can you afford the Pacifica 2-channel? Or an Avalon 737? Or a BAE lunchbox with a channel or two?

If you had a Rosetta AD in '02/'03, it was considered state-of-the-art front end (with the exception of Benchmark or Prism, et al.) -- do records really sound any better right now? The $$$ difference between the AD and the 200 isn't justified at your price level -- MAYBE if you were spending $5k to upgrade...